Yum! These are so good! Your tip of the week comes from my TEOTWAWKI Wife--a delicious tortilla recipe that requires only basic staples and cook up fast--a great option for survival cooking.
In the Southwest, I could pick up a huge pack of cook-up tortilla's with no preservatives, and hardly any ingredients (just real ones, not gross chemicals) from the store no problem. Now that we've moved to the other side of the country, I'm finding that certain things aren't available. I can't stand store bought flour tortillas after having been spoiled with the delicious cook-up kind. We eat a lot of Mexican food in our home, so I needed a quick solution.
I found a pretty good recipe that tastes delicious, it's easy to make, and the tortilla's are pliable (you can actually fold them and they don't split). And it only uses simple, mostly food storage friendly ingredients!
What's great about this recipe is that it requires oil, which I always have on hand, as opposed to a tub of lard which most require. Though, with tortillas you really just need flour, a fat (oil, lard, shortening, butter), salt and a liquid. Depending on which fat you use the texture and flavor will be a little different.
My only problem with these were that they were on the thick side. I'm guessing it's the baking powder obviously. I think I may play around with it a bit.
Recipe:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vegetable or canola oil (I used canola. We never buy vegetable oil.)
3/4 warm milk (you can of course use reconstituted powdered milk)
Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and oil together in a medium size bowl. Slowly add the milk and mix together with your other hand. You're going to get really sticky hands--don't worry, you're doing it right. Take the sticky ball and knead for about 2 mins on a lightly floured surface. It should feel slightly firm and soft.
Let the ball rest in the bowl for at least 20 mins covered with plastic wrap. I let mine rest for over a half over because I got busy. Pull the dough out and break into 8 even pieces. Roll the dough in the palm of your hand to make a small ball. Place the balls on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let the balls rest for more than 10 mins.
Once they are done resting, roll out each piece of dough in the shape of a circle. Try and get the dough as thin as possible. Then place the newly formed tortilla on a skillet that has been heated over medium to medium high heat. They don't need to cook long, maybe 30 seconds a side. You can tell it's done because the bottom will have brown spots. The quick cook-up time means efficient use of fuel too--if it's after the zombies have risen and you're worried about conserving.
The finished tortilla--looks pretty good!
Recipe adapted from Homesick Texan.